From the Publisher:
Written by the author of the best-selling HyperText & HyperMedia, this book provides an excellent guide to the methods of usability engineering. Special features: emphasizes cost-effective methods that will help developers improve their user interfaces immediately, shows you how to avoid the four most frequently listed reasons for delay in software projects, provides step-by-step information about which methods to use at various stages during the development life cycle, and offers information on the unique issues relating to informational usability. You do not need to have previous knowledge of usability to implement the methods provided, yet all of the latest research is covered.

Usability Engineering

世界経済・社会統計 = World development indicators

According to W. Edwards Deming, American companies require nothing less than a transformation of management style and of governmental relations with industry. In Out of the Crisis, originally published in 1982, Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Points for Management. Management's failure to plan for the future, he claims, brings about loss of market, which brings about loss of jobs. Management must be judged not only by the quarterly dividend, but by innovative plans to stay in business, protect investment, ensure future dividends, and provide more jobs through improved product and service. In simple, direct language, he explains the principles of management transformation and how to apply them.

Out of the Crisis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to give a state‐of‐the art overview of the Job Demands‐Resources (JD‐R) modelDesign/methodology/approach – The strengths and weaknesses of the demand‐control model and the effort‐reward imbalance model regarding their predictive value for employee well being are discussed. The paper then introduces the more flexible JD‐R model and discusses its basic premises.Findings – The paper provides an overview of the studies that have been conducted with the JD‐R model. It discusses evidence for each of the model's main propositions. The JD‐R model can be used as a tool for human resource management. A two‐stage approach can highlight the strengths and weaknesses of individuals, work groups, departments, and organizations at large.Originality/value – This paper challenges existing stress models, and focuses on both negative and positive indicators of employee well being. In addition, it outlines how the JD‐R model can be applied to a wide range of occupations, and be used to i...

The job demands-resources model : state of the art

This study focuses on burnout and its positive antipode—engagement. A model is tested in which burnout and engagement have different predictors and different possible consequences. Structural equation modeling was used to simultaneously analyze data from four independent occupational samples (total N = 1698). Results confirm the hypothesized model indicating that: (1) burnout and engagement are negatively related, sharing between 10 per cent and 25 per cent of their variances; (2) burnout is mainly predicted by job demands but also by lack of job resources, whereas engagement is exclusively predicted by available job resources; (3) burnout is related to health problems as well as to turnover intention, whereas engagement is related only to the latter; (4) burnout mediates the relationship between job demands and health problems, whereas engagement mediates the relationship between job resources and turnover intention. The fact that burnout and engagement exhibit different patterns of possible causes and consequences implies that different intervention strategies should be used when burnout is to be reduced or engagement is to be enhanced. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi‐sample study

Every organization is confronted with errors; these errors can result in 
either positive (e.g., learning, innovation) or negative (e.g., loss of time, 
poor-quality products) consequences. On the positive side, errors can lay 
the foundation for outcomes such as innovation and learning (e.g., Sitkin, 
1992). For example, both Edmondson (1996) and van Dyck, Frese, Baer, and 
Sonnentag (2005) found that a positive and constructive approach to errors 
is associated with organizational outcomes such as learning and performance. With regard to the negative aspects of errors, the majority of the 
attention within the organizational sciences has focused on the investigation of highly salient and visible organizational failures (e.g., Challenger, 
Columbia, Chernobyl; Perrow, 1984; Reason, 1987; Starbuck & Farjoun, 
2005; Starbuck & Milliken, 1988a; Vaughan, 1996). These investigations 
have taught us a great deal about how many seemingly independent decisions, actions, and organizational conditions can become interconnected 
and create extreme failure.
These extreme examples, however, do not really capture the lion’s shareof errors occurring within organizations. Individuals working in organizations make errors every day and every hour and (sometimes) make 
multiple errors in the span of a minute. Researchers, for example, have 
estimated that for some computer tasks, up to 50% of work time is spent 
on error recovery (Hanson, Kraut, & Farber, 1984; Kraut, Hanson, & Farber, 
1983; Shneiderman, 1987), and Brodbeck, Zapf, Prumper, and Frese (1993) 
found that 10% of computer work time is spent handling and recovering from errors. Other computer-based research suggested that individuals average 18 unnecessary cursor movements per hour (Floyd & Pyun, 
1987).

Errors, Error Taxonomies, Error Prevention, and Error Management: Laying the Groundwork for Discussing Errors in Organizations

The goals of this article are to integrate action regulation theory (ART) with the lifespan developmental perspective and to outline tenets of a new metatheory of work and aging. The action regulation across the adult lifespan (ARAL) theory explains how workers influence, and are influenced by, their environment across different time spans. First, the basic concepts of ART are described, including the sequential and hierarchical structure of actions, complete tasks and actions, foci of action regulation, and the action-regulating mental model. Second, principles of the lifespan developmental perspective are delineated, including development as a lifelong and multidirectional process, the joint occurrence of gains and losses, intraindividual plasticity, historical embeddedness, and contextualism. Third, propositions of ARAL theory are derived by analyzing workers’ action regulation from a lifespan developmental perspective (i.e., effects of aging on action regulation), and by analyzing aging and development in the work context from an ART perspective (i.e., effects of action regulation on age-related changes in cognition and personality). Fourth, we develop further propositions to integrate ART with lifespan theories of motivation and socioemotional experience. Finally, we discuss implications for future research and practice based on ARAL theory.

Action Regulation Across the Adult Lifespan (ARAL): A Metatheory of Work and Aging

Batken virus, isolated from mosquitoes and ticks, was tentatively classified as a member of the family Bunyaviridae. Here we show that Batken virus is inhibited by the interferon-induced Mx1 protein of mice which selectively blocks the growth of orthomyxoviruses, including Thogoto and Dhori viruses. Furthermore, we show that Batken virus multiplication is characterized by accumulation of viral proteins in the nucleus and by budding of viral particles from the cell surface. Serological cross-reactions between Batken and Dhori viruses revealed a phylogenetic relationship of these viruses, as previously also proposed by D. K. Lvov. Fragments of the Batken virus glycoprotein and nucleoprotein genes were amplified by RT-PCR. The deduced amino acid sequences were similar to the corresponding Dhori virus sequences. Therefore, Batken virus should be classified into the newly established genus Thogotovirus of the family Orthomyxoviridae. Finally, our results demonstrate that Mx1 susceptibility of orthomyxoviruses is a reliable marker in the hunt for new family members.

Mx1 sensitivity: Batken virus is an orthomyxovirus closely related to Dhori virus

In surveys conducted in different countries over four years, the authors investigated why entrepreneurs in the same sector and during the same period were not equally successful. From the findings of this research they developed a new three-day training programme to address primarily skills and techniques relating to personal initiative, planning, goal setting and innovation. The training programme follows the ‘action learning’ approach, which links learning to activity, and is based on the assumption that competencies and behavioural patterns can be learned. A sample of 84 entrepreneurs was selected in South Africa. In the first stage (T1), before the start of the training, a standardized interview was conducted. The sample was then split into two groups: the ‘experimental’ group, which participated in the training (T2) and the ‘control’ group (no training). After six months (T3) the results of the training group were compared with those of the control group through the use of behavioural measures. The r...

Does Training Improve the Business Performance of Small-Scale Entrepreneurs? An Evaluative Study.

We performed nine studies with partly overlapping samples from the United States and Germany to establish the reliability, validity; and usefulness of the concept of action style—a person-specific approach to action. Two principal-components-analyses factors are dealt with in more detail: goal orientation and planfulness. Both show high consistencies and have tcst-rctcst correlations of r = .47 and .48, respectively, across 8 months. In one validity study, the correlations between self-ratings and peer ratings are .36 for goal orientation and .54 for planfulness. In a second validity study, a quasi experiment, with thinking-aloud protocols on planning a day in a strange city, showed rather weak correlations between raters and subjects, but these correlations improved when we included only those subjects who were easy to observe. A third validity study on the correlations with impulsivity showed that goal orientation is little related but that planfulness is to a higher degree. There are small but consistent and significant relations with depression and with coronary-prone 'lype A behavior, and there are correlations with work-related constructs of stress and resources at work as well as with performance in college. Most individuals set goals and develop some plans during the course of a day. Whether one prefers to plan a course of action while taking a shower or before going to bed, it would be crippling to most people to have this process of goal refinement and planful behavior prevented completely. Actions are determined and guided by goals, plans, and feedback (Anderson, 1985; Frese & Sabini, 1985; Miller, Galanter, & Pribram, 1960). The goals determine the course of the plan, and the feedback from the environment redirects the plans, providing the basis for an assessment of whether a plan will serve a given goal and whether the desired goal has been achieved. Goals and plans are organized hierarchically (at least to a certain degree) and include

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Michael Frese

Papers

Errors, Error Taxonomies, Error Prevention, and Error Management: Laying the Groundwork for Discussing Errors in Organizations

Action Regulation Across the Adult Lifespan (ARAL): A Metatheory of Work and Aging

Mx1 sensitivity: Batken virus is an orthomyxovirus closely related to Dhori virus

Does Training Improve the Business Performance of Small-Scale Entrepreneurs? An Evaluative Study.

PERSONALITY PROCESSES AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES Goal Orientation and Planfulness: Action Styles as Personality Concepts